Too Late the Hirit

Let’s make some things clear before the actual post begins:

1. I’m not on his side. He really was a bit arrogant. And it really was kinda foul.
2. And the law school really doesn’t dictate how great a lawyer or human being you’ll be. You dictate that.
3. I don’t even know why I have to make no. 1 clear.
4. Anyway this is my blog, my little space of permissible meanness so I shall write as I deem fit. As many people before me have done, and many people after me will do.

And so therefore, we proceed.

I along with probably the rest of the law school going world was able to read the article regarding the Supreme Court censure of a Judge who took the UP Law pride too far. Of course, I was also able to read the numerous posts condemning him for his actions.

As I (sober) am a bit easily bored and therefore usually find myself with a lot of time on my hands, I find that this is a topic I would like to say something about, never mind that this is about a few weeks too late.

I found the schadenfreude exhibited by a lot of people a bit too much. There was in the comments made and in the posts I read a hint of glee that an arrogant man was told off so richly.

The poor guy was already censured, and maybe even before that was made too feel not a little bit sorry he ever lost his temper and said what he said. He most probably deserved the reprimand, because he did cede the higher ground for a few moments there in court. But still.

For people to keep on harping on his being arrogant and even, at times, to express joy that he was reprimanded for his arrogance, well, I dunno.

Isn’t it also a bit of arrogance on our parts to assume that we’re such paragons of humility and restraint that in the face of provocation we won’t be tempted to say something maybe not to the effect, but still, something insulting?

I for one can’t guarantee that my verbal brakes are always firmly under control. Just recently (this Saturday in fact), I went all the way to Fort to attend a party (with boyfriend kicking and screaming in tow) for UP Law Bar Ops and was refused entrance along with a few other people (never mind that I had a ticket) because there was a misunderstanding between the organizers and the venue people about the duration of the event, and had to contend with a snippy group of overly-made-up anorexia poster girls of doubtful college graduate descent and their steroid-overdosed bouncer buddies who apparently think so highly of themselves they talk down to people on the basis of lack of guest list presence.

Good fucking grief the choice evil thoughts I had not only for the little guest relations chicklets but the people who forgot that to assert contract terms or lack thereof you must actually have a copy of the contract (I was drunk during oblicon I think. But never mind the law, how bout a little common sense?) with you so as to not get screwed over and irritate people who could have done something better with their nights than stand in line for an hour and be told to leave, like wax their legs, or clean their rooms, or gotten cheaper alcohol.

And I have had the doubtful privilege of knowing people who look at other people differently because they don’t pray to the same god or go to the same church or listen to/sing the same songs or read the same books or watch the same movies or go to the same beaches or whatever little snitty bit of something they think makes them better than everyone else.

And while their unspoken –and at times spoken- derision or discrimination isn’t as publicized as the poor judge’s mistake was, they aren’t less deserving of censure.

After all, if this had been an Ateneo Law person the judge had said what he’d said to, this wouldn’t be such a big issue. But such is the way of the world[1], and sorry nalang but this moment in time it has been decreed that it’s the poor judge’s turn to get spanked.

So. Maybe we should reserve the “we’re ashamed to even know this guy” comments for those who deserve it more, eh? Like the people who drive great cars on government salaries and people who like talking pa-conyo when they can’t even pronounce certain states right (joke lang kinda) and people who are just so annoying they should be ashamed to know themselves. Maybe we should all be honest and say that there are little things in life we’re all secretly arrogant about, and that if the time comes we can’t really guarantee maturity. Gah.


[1]
And such is also the way of the world that little supercilious shits who think their God will excuse their shittiness towards other people not quite so divinely blessed can get away with being supercilious little shits who actually do nothing to better their environment as they promise God when they go to church to do.

cruel and unusual

In a 5-4 decision June 25, 2008, the US Supreme Court struck down a law that imposes the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under the age of 12, saying it violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In Kennedy v. Louisiana, Justice Anthony Kennedy said in so many words that a State may not impose the death penalty against an individual for committing a crime that did not result in the death of the victim, and in essence said that for as long as the rape did not culminate in the death of the child, the punishment of death is not commensurate to the crime.

I suppose I agree with him. After all, why not keep the perverted fuckers alive and torture them and let them get buttfucked every goddamned day of the rest of their lives? Except I suppose that would be cruel and unusual too.

But I think what’s more cruel and unusual is the fact that the poor children these dickwads raped and tortured and mutilated will have to try and live whatever lives they can live with the knowledge that the persons responsible for their worst nightmares ever have received the mercy and compassion from the Court that they didn’t show to their victims. That they should’ve died after they were raped, if only to ensure that their rapists would die too.

Cruel and unusual. Really.

I’ve never really had a strong stand regarding capital punishment, I’ve usually been in the shades of gray whenever the topic comes up, but I know where I stand in some things.

I’m mostly against capital punishment because of the fallibility of the justice system, the mistakes that can be made that can result in innocent people dying,

I don’t agree with the imposition of capital punishment for drug crimes, as the people who get caught and punished are usually the middle men and the low rung players who were too stupid to know better, and not the big time dealers who barely blink at the loss and continue counting the money.

But people who rob other people of the lives they used to know, people who never gave innocent children the opportunity to grow up and be happy first and maybe later when they’re adults find out that the world isn’t such a good place, people who derived pleasure from causing defenseless little boys and girls pain?

If only to give those poor children who survived some small measure of comfort, if only to let them know that those who took their innocent lives away will have their godforsaken lives taken from them too?

I would say that what’s more cruel and unusual is to allow these fuckers to live and torture and insult their victims, as well as the good and decent people of this world, with their continued existence.

Foot in Mouth Moments (not an exhaustive list)

Nerd Fetish

At Persian food place with boyfriend and boyfriend’s friends since forever (since way before you entered kinder maybe). Talking about shows that could possibly have been airing at the same decade you and their particular age group were watching tv.

You mention SeaQuest (which aired in the 90s and was about a submarine and a talking dolphin), and the fact that you had a crush on Jonathan Brandis’ awkward adolescent geek of a character Lucas Wolenczyk, and the fact that people say you have a propensity for developing crushes on nerds.

Forgetting of course that your boyfriend, for all that you adore him, can be quite a nerd at times. (The thin frame that can hide behind you completely and the glasses just add to the image of course.)


Father’s Foot in Mouth (not that he cares)

At Shopwise Eastwood, on the slow as an upside down turtle ramp. With father and sisters.

Father (cranky as the car he loves like a daughter- actually more than any of his daughters- seems to be having difficulty accelerating): Ang bibigat nyo kasi!

(Remarking on two quite huge ladies he saw near the entrance as we were getting on the ramp) Sige kumain pa kayo. Pag naging kasing laki nyo ung mga yun di na kayo sasakay sa koche.

Daughter (me, face slowly blushing ripe tomato red in embarrassment) turns around and sees aforementioned quite huge ladies maybe five feet away and most certainly near earshot.


Forgettable You

Parking lot of Metrowalk, on the way to Wheng my friendly neighborhood dvd dealer. Seeing SUV battle for parking slot with equally huge gas guzzler.

Me: I once saw this huge pickup sulot the slot of this SUV and thought there’d be a huge catfight in greenhills parking.

Jones: Eh ako ung kasama mo dun eh!!!!!



Oops.

on the radar again

After an hour and a half of traffic and an hour and a half of waiting in line in Makati LTO with someone who had better (read: billable) things to do, I am now the proud owner of a newly renewed (gah) albeit still misspelled driver’s license. I am now no longer a strange, un-ID’d freak of nature.

Should anyone find it strange that I am taking this time to celebrate said occurrence, think it strange not. Why?

1. I usually waste time writing about things that don’t require deep philosophical thinking, as I don’t really do a lot of aforesaid deep philosophical thinking.

2. As someone who very rarely achieves goals set for a given week, let alone a given lifetime, to accomplish something is worthy of celebration, maybe even a few beers.

Having spent two years with just one identification card (UP ID), and thus for two years unable to open an account anywhere (lack of money to maintain account not the topic therefore will not be discussed), encash anything (not that there have been many opportunities), or transactions of the like, I am more than a bit happy that I am now a documented person.

Most people would probably find it strange that a person, a law student and a kinda working person at that, would be wandering around the country (read: Ortigas, Makati, Diliman, once, for three days, Laoag) blithely running the risk of remaining unidentified should there be a catastrophic incident. I must admit that I found it strange too.

But until recently I have never needed extra ID. I don’t travel (road trips don’t count), so no passport since 2000. I have never in my life had to pay taxes, as I had never had gainful employment til this year, so no TIN. I’ve never registered to vote, as I keep on forgetting to register, so no Voter’s ID. The last time I truly drove, a pillar of eastwood parking received a minor gash, so renewing a license I would never be asked to produce seemed way down on my priorities list.

I was finally persuaded to procure some means of identification when my current place of employment had to petty cash my salary as I was unable to come up with the necessary IDs to open a payroll account. So on the first weekday I had free (thank you Pasig for having a Pasig day), I schlepped over to my friendly not really in the neighborhood LTO and tried to avenge the hideous license picture experience of the last time. And now I can go to the accountant and tell her that they can now payroll ATM me even as I harbor serious doubts about the need for an ATM as I am woefully unable to hold on to anything but a hangover.

Being petty cashed is not the best way to feel like a normal functioning and self-actualized human being, apparently.

thinking things

“I’m sorry, I did not read the case”

As I sit in one of the back rows and listen to one student after another repeat the phrase when called to recite one of the first cases in the assignment, I wonder if I was ever that bad back when I was Latak Queen. But to the best of my recollection I never stood up and told a professor that I didn’t read something I was supposed to read.

And while there have been many times in the years that I have been in law school that I have failed to read everything, I can say with reasonable confidence that I have never not read anything. And I have been lucky that while I am a bit late in appreciating being in this place and the luck I have had, I get this chance to prove that my luck is deserved, and I get to work harder than I ever have in part to be a better person when I leave and in part to atone for the time when I didn’t work as hard as I should’ve.

For the most part while listening to them –in addition to hoping I don’t get called because being bitch-slapped first thing in the morning has never been my favorite thing – I have been thinking about the past year and the unbelievably real events that led to a friend of mine not being able to stay, and me working harder than ever before so that I could stay.

And I have been thinking that if my friend were the one in their place, he would not have stood up the way they did, and he would not have said in an almost shame-less tone what they said.

And I have been thinking that he would have been able to recite, more than competently, and had he been unable to know everything, he at least would have known enough to not insult a professor- who wakes up as early as we do and no doubt prepares more than we do and most certainly doesn’t need to do those things but does so because he wants us to learn- by telling him that he didn’t care enough to study even a bit.

And I would be remembering how he had fought to the very last round, and was defeated, and now calls another school his college. He had worked hard and been a friend and a good blockmate. He had done nothing but the right thing at the wrong time and just, quite simply, got fucked over. He would most certainly not have said what I heard at least three people in a row say today.

And maybe I have been thinking of people who flunked civ pro and got to take OLA and should’ve flunked civ pro again but passed and people who get by with a little brown-nosing and a little yosi bonding time and people who were too busy being on tv and whatever else to help fellow students and those people who should have been number one but weren’t and those people who did nothing but be kind and generous and not ordinary but were called arrogant and Machiavellian just because and how this place is so unforgivingly painfully harshly unfair to those who want to stay here and learn the most.

Maybe I’ve been thinking of all that in the time it takes for them to stand up and say, one by one,

“I’m sorry I didn’t read the case”

But mostly I have been thinking that my friend would never have said that. Ever.